Phil Hellmuth's Wacky Appearance at the Poker Table

I’d already left town, so I missed it, but Phil Hellmuth showed up to play his opening day of the WSOP’s main event dressed like General Patton—or rather like the late George C. Scott portraying General Patton. Attired in military dress khakis, Phil actually managed to do General Patton one better. Hellmuth’s helmet had 11 stars on it, one for each of the championship bracelets he’s won in World Series events. He also carried a riding crop—only one, thank you—and was accompanied by 11 models who were also ragged out in military gear.

Last year Hellmuth arrived in a race car driving suit, and most of us wondered whether he actually changed clothes from his escapade the day before, when he drove a race car and managed to put it into a piece of concrete K-rail.

Lucky for all of us that Hellmuth decided not to drive one of Patton’s WWII-era tanks into the Amazon Room at the Rio, although after a few trips walking back and forth from the parking lot to the WSOP tournament area, any form of transportation is a welcome relief. If a WWII tank is all you have, well have at it. After all, the tank will make it up the steps and through the doors of the Rio whether they are open or not, and would be fully capable of driving through any of the interior walls to deposit Hellmuth/Patton at his table.

“I’m glad he didn’t crash this year,” World Series of Poker commissioner Jeffrey Pollack told USA Today. “If Phil was able to make an entrance that is bigger than anyone else’s entrance and do it without injuring himself or any of his colleagues, I think that’s a good thing.”